Sepultura Streaming "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart"

The new album of the legendary Brazilian metal icons Sepultura, "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart," is out now.

Together with Metal Hammer UK, the band is now streaming the new album from today on until Friday, November 1st, 2013.

The album was recorded with renowned producer Ross Robinson, who worked with Sepultura on the landmark 1996 release "Roots," and co-produced by Steve Evetts, who previously worked on Sepultura’s "Roorback" (2003), the "Revolusongs" EP (2002), and "Nation" (2001).

You can also read a track-by-track breakdown of the album from Andreas Kisser at this location.

“Trauma of War”…I liked the ending riff but that was about it.“Vatican”…Excellent intro, catchy beginning riff. Mid part of the song kills at the 4:30 mark. Amazing lead. Second best on the album.“Impending Doom”…Another cool intro riff. Otherwise I didn’t care for this song.“Manipulation of Tragedy”…I love Paulo’s bass playing…he always had that “it” factor and he never lost it.The middle section goes into Roots territory and totally ruins the flow of the song.“Tsunami” …Another decent thrasher but nothing sepultacular.“Bliss of Ignorance” …Dull main riff. Awesome lead…this song is very Roots-ish. That wasn’t a compliment.“Grief”…A Sepulballad?.....well, not really a ballad but sort of a trance like song. I can honestly say I love Green’s voice on this one.I’d love to hear more tribal type singing from Green.His singing voice is rich, full and very pleasing to the ears.But then he starts yelling and…..no.“Age of the Atheist”… I’ve listened to this song four times and the intro is very Arise-ish but the rest of it does nothing for me.“Obsessed”... YES!!!Old school Schizophrenia thrash attack. My favorite track.“Da Lamo”…Twenty five minutes?Dream – Sepul – Theater minus the skill or creativity to pull off such a long song.Very Rattamahatta type song…hated it.

It’s Friday so I’m really trying to be upbeatAll in all it’s a strong(ish) album.Much stronger than the first single “Age of the Atheist” indicated.Derrick…poor Derrick…he does a damn good job, he always has. I just feel bad for the guy.He’s been with Sep longer than Max and the comparisons just never end.Here’s the problem I have with the album.Every single song has cool things going on but those things aren’t capitalized on AT ALL.There’s too many plodding, pointless riffs meandering about with nowhere to go.All the super awesome riffs seem to be reserved for intro, interlude or song endings.

To summarize…Incredible riffs, but not enough of them.All four members turn in stellar performances.The production is fine.I still don’t know what they were thinking with the album title.What holds this album back is the bands obvious need to appease the older fans and the newer fans at the same time.When you have a catalog as diverse as Seps that’s an almost impossible task.The band really seems confused as what direction to go in so they simply threw as much crap at the wall as they could hoping some of it would stick, and some of it did but not nearly enough.My relationship with Sep goes all the way back to Morbid Visions.I married them with Beneath.Roots served me with divorce papers and sadly it’s been an on again, off again sordid affair with the band ever since.Five out of ten BrianMN’s.

again, another example of a good sounding band who would be better if they had a better/different vocalist.im not saying Derek necessarily is a bad vocalist just doesn't match for me.this is the case for so many bands, its frustrating.

Nation to me was the only derrick-era album i didn't give a shat about....roorback caught my attention as it seemed they were starting to sound like sepultura again....dante ,a-lex and kairos was a continuation of them discovering the brutality. ....I'll close this by saying max will never ever join sepultura ever....i got used to this in 1998 i think everyone should too, derrick has made more albums in sepultura than max, it's his throne now....i've seen sepultura live 3 times (2001,2005 and 2010) they destroyed every single time FLAWLESS EXECUTION. ....i give mediator 8/10 it's a sepultura album that's all you really need to kno

It's interesting to contrast this with their performance on Barge To Hell. There, they were like a killer cover band, playing all the classic Septultura songs with a ton of energy. Now this material is like a completely different band. I like this better than the records they were trying to be old Sepultura, because those always came up short for me.

The first song reminds me a bit too much of Devildriver, but the next few sound like some decent death metal.

@xFiruath...LOL.I think Sepul fans are a little more laid back then the DT Julliard crowd.Besides...I did like the album....I just don't think it's cohesive enough.Too many ideas going in too many directions.I'm not a part of the "Max leaving destroyed the band" crowd.Sepul started to really lose me with Chaos AD if you want to know the truth.I did enjoy Against and Kairos.What's really been killing the band for has been Andreas' guitar tone. It's so muddy I find myself cringing.I really wish he'd go back to standard or a step below. Or just upgrade to an eight string.So once again, I'm surprised no one has asked...Why do I keep coming back?Why not...there's been plenty of great songs since Max/Igor left. There's some killer stuff on this album, it just doesn't quite gel the way it should.